Flawed Power (Book 1: Rise)
by Mistysplash
Summary: Storm has always admired his distant ancestor, Mugsy. His fearlessness, his feats of strength, his bravery. Now he will do anything to live up to his name. To become feared and admired at the same time. Anything. Even if it costs him his sanity. First story in the Flawed Power trilogy. Please read and review.
1. Prolouge

**Just an idea I've been harboring inside my head for a while.**

* * *

She daintily put a paw through the door flap. It made her leg fur feel warm. She stepped through the rest of the flap.

Now her gray tabby pelt felt warm. She momentarily looked up at the sky. Not a cloud was in the sky. Not today.

The kitten surveyed the yard. There was green grass that was fenced in. Near the fences were some leafy green shrubs. On the left half of the yard were four chairs and a table, but they looked a lot different from the ones in the house.

"Seems interesting enough," she thought.

The kitten approached one of the chairs, before leaping onto its platform clumsily. She hopped onto the table. It was clear. The kitten padded across the table. She was very close to the fence.

"Almost there," the kitten thought.

The kitten leaped onto the fence, and grabbed the top with her forepaws. She frantically kicked her hindlegs to get on top of the fence.

"Whew. Barely made it."

She sat there a moment, taking in the view of the other yard. It looked the same as hers except there wasn't any tables and chairs there, and in the center of that yard was a little pond surrounded by stones.

"Pretty," she thought.

The kitten swung her head to the other side and took a better look at her yard.

"Who are you?" A voice asked.

The kitten look back at the other yard she'd looked at earlier, where the voice had come from. A black and white kitten was sitting near the pond, its gleaming amber eyes staring back at her.

"I said, who are you?"

"Eliza. You?"

"Don."

The two kittens stared at each other for a while.

Don asked, "Have you ever seen the forest?"

Eliza didn't answer.

"I said, have you been in the forest?"

"No."

Don shook his head in disappointment. He padded around the pool, went to the edge of the yard, and leaped onto the fence.

"Come over here," he called.

Eliza padded over to where he was and sat next to him.

"You see those trees?"

"Yea. Why?"

"That's the forest."

"I can tell."

They sat there in silence.

Eliza asked, "Have you been in the forest?"

Don looked at her with surprise before replying, "No. Why are you asking that?"

"I assumed you went in first, since you asked me. Besides, you seem to be obsessed with it and all."

"I'm not. I'm just interested."

There was more silence. The two kittens continued to stare at the forest.

Eliza's collar made her neck fur itch, but she didn't dare scratch it, in fear of falling off of the fence.

Don asked, "Have you heard any tales about the forest cats?"

"No. Have you?"

A look of cheerfulness spread across Don's face. "Actually yes, I have!"

"From who?"

"My other neighbor, Pipkin, told me."

"What did he tell you?"

Don was silent for a moment. "Well, he told me that the forest cats were vicious creatures. Very vicious. Defensive too. If you were to step on their territory, they'd practically claw you to bits! They're-"

"Wait, how does this cat know that they'd claw someone to bits? Did he learn this, or did he experience it?"

"Pipkin said that he went in there, and came across some of them. Most of them tried to claw him to bits, but one of them let him go."

"Oh."

* * *

Eliza curled up in her little nest. One of the housefolk kits bent down, and scratched the back of her ears. She hated it when they did that, but she didn't want to do something that would suggest that to them.

The housefolk kit said something unintelligible, other than her name.

It then ran to the weird platform, and dashed up it. About halfway, it touched something on the wall that turned off the light sources. The housefolk kit continued up the the platform faster than its previous speed.

Eliza closed her eyes, and fell asleep.

* * *

Eliza woke up. She looked at her back. It was the smooth fur of an adult cat, and not the downy fur of a kit. Her collar was also gone, her neck fur ruffled as if she had never worn one.

"Stupid flashbacks," she muttered.

While they'd brought her some comfort, they were still painful.

She glanced at her newborn kits.

A large roar of thunder boomed outside. Eliza started to hear the rain pattering on the edges of her makeshift den. Her kits started mewling, and making pitiful sounds.

Eliza shushed the kits. Their mewling grew softer.

Shaking her head sadly, she closed her eyes again, and went back to sleep.

* * *

**How did you like it guys? Please read and review. **

**Note: Eliza is Storm's mother. (Storm and his siblings will appear in the next chapter.)**


	2. Chapter 1

**Here's the next chapter! :P Rather quick update, don't you agree? (Don't worry; I'm working on the next chapters for Beautiful Sparkle and Two Worlds.)**

* * *

Two kits were mock fighting in an alley.

The biggest one, Storm, was winning so far.

"Ha, I got you on the ear Shade," he laughed as he swiped his stocky paws at his brother's ear.

But then Shade smacked Storm on the cheek with his claws unsheathed.

"Take that, furball," Shade sneered.

Storm wiped his cheek off. Looking at it, his gray paw had a little bit of blood on it.

He looked at his brother, who was staring back at him bewildered.

With a roar of fury, Storm lunged at his brother, and pinned him to the ground.

"You idiot! Mum said we're not allowed to draw blood when we mock fight, and look at what you did," Storm screeched.

"It's…not…my fault!" Shade cried as he tried to wriggle from under his brother.

A wave of pity swept through Storm, and he released his brother from his grip.

Shade then scratched the back of his ear. "Where's Edith? Wasn't she out here earlier?"

"Yea, she's still out here. She's just being cowardly," Storm snarled.

A sleek black and white kit leaped out from behind a large cardboard box, and knocked Storm to the ground.

Pinning him, the kit hissed, "I bet you weren't expecting that, now were you?"

"Edith…you cheated. You're not allowed to hide behind something for long amounts of time. Oh, and when did that box get here?" Shade said.

Edith let Storm get up before she snickered, "Really? The box? You both really need to be more observant of your surroundings."

"Just get to the point," Shade snapped.

"I first saw it around one to two weeks ago."

They sat there for a moment. Then a barely audible voice said, "You guys still there?"

The three kits turned to look at the alley entrance. A gray tabby she-cat padded around the corner and entered the alley. She was holding some chicken in her mouth.

Storm yowled, "Mum!"

He started to run towards her.

"Wait Storm. I need to put our dinner up first."

Eliza set it next to the den entrance. Storm ran into her, and accidently bumped into her leg. Eliza bent down, and licked Storm on the forehead. "I've missed you little one."

Edith and Shade approached their mom slowly.

"How are the both of you?" Eliza purred.

"Good," Shade muttered.

"Wonderful," Edith giggled.

Eliza got the chicken, and dropped it in front of the kits.

"It's time for dinner," she said.

Shade groaned. "Already?"

Eliza rolled her eyes. "Look, if you want to starve, that's fine with me. But I suggest that you sit down and eat. And if you're well behaved enough, I'll tell you a story after we eat. 'Kay?"

Shade nodded his head.

Storm sat down, his tail lashing back and forth in excitement. Shade and Edith took a seat too.

* * *

The kits settled in the den. Eliza was curled into her nest of plastic bags, while the kits settled into their nests of old rags.

Eliza wheezed a little bit, before she said, "I don't remember it as well, so I'll try my best to tell it accurately."

"Hopefully it doesn't change completely," Shade muttered.

Eliza ignored the comment. "Long before you were born, heck, long before _I_ was born, there was a cat named Mugsy. He lived many sky-lengths away from this place."

"How many?" Edith inquired.

"More than you can imagine. Now please stop interrupting me.

"Mugsy stayed with some housefolk and some other cats in a swamp. His job was to accompany more housefolk in the swamp." Eliza coughed before she continued, "And in these swamps were these huge, dangerous, scaly beasts that had long snouts with sharp, crooked teeth and long, thick tails. Everything about these creatures was muscular. Their scaly skin was as green as moss. Mugsy called them alligators."

"What do alligators have to do with the story?" Shade asked.

"If you'd stop interrupting me, then maybe I'd tell you," Eliza snapped. "Every time Mugsy was given food, the alligators tried to attack him, and take the food. But every time they did that, Mugsy would get them back. With a smack to the face like this," Eliza said as she struck her paw out at an imaginary opponent, "And a hiss, they'd turn away. Fearless, Mugsy would do this every day and fiercely defend his scrawny meal from the nasty alligators. Overtime, they stopped trying to steal his food, and stayed away from him. All the other cats respected him. Even the housefolk marveled at strength and bravery."

Storm gasped. "Wow! Where did you hear that story?"

"I remember my mother telling this story to me as a kit, before her housefolk gave me away. She said that my dad was descended from him," Eliza sighed.

"And you believed her?" Shade remarked skeptically.

"My mother had a truthful streak, so of course I believed her."

Eliza stared off into space. She did this for a few moments, while her kits stared back at her with a weird look on their faces.

She blinked and said, "Well, time for bed!" Eliza lied her head down, and closed her eyes.

The kits lied down, but did not go to sleep.

"Gee, that was a nice story," Storm whispered to his sister.

"Interesting, but not realistic enough for me."

"Yea, seems a little bit farfetched, don't you think?" Shade butted in.

"Not for me. I mean, housefolk do all sorts of impossible things. So what says that a cat can't smack an alligator and get away with it?" Storm protested.

"Common sense," Edith sneered.

"Exactly," Shade muttered, scratching his ear again, "Besides, it's a story. You really need a reality check-"

Storm screeched, "You act like a butthead, just like our dad! You know that?!"

Edith groaned. "Really? Why do you have to drag our dad into this? I mean, we barely know him-"

"HE'S A COWARD, AND A PIECE OF DIRT! WHAT KIND OF FATHER ABANDONS HIS OWN KITS FOR HIS HOUSEFOLK?!" Storm yowled angrily.

Eliza lifted her head up and hissed, "QUIET! MY WORD, GO TO BED!" She lied her head down.

"Idiots," Storm growled at his siblings before lying his head down.

* * *

**Just to confirm, there really is a video of a cat smacking an alligator. They even showed it on TV. (If you really want to see that, type "Mugsy cat" on YouTube and click on the second video. [Don't include the quotation marks.]) **

**-cough- Anyways, I hope you liked the chapter.**

**Please read and review. (By will.)**


	3. Chapter 2

**Note: This is several moons after the last chapter, so Storm, Shade, and Edith are now around 10 moons old.**

* * *

Storm squirmed while his mother tried to groom him.

"Mum, stop! I'm clean enough!" he cried in protest.

"Oh hush," Eliza replied, licking Storm behind the ears.

"No, really! I am!"

Eliza sighed. "Fine, but don't get your fur dirty in the next five to ten minutes, ok?"

"Ok."

"Now get your siblings and go where I told you to meet him."

Storm nodded his head in respect, and padded across the clearing into the cardboard box.

He poked his head inside.

"C'mon. Mum said we have to go now."

Edith groaned, "I don't see why we have to do this."

"Mum says it's for our own good."

"Isn't everything for our own good?" Shade muttered under his breath crossly.

"IF I DON'T SEE SOME CATS LEAVING THIS CLEARING IN THIRTY SECONDS, SOMEONE'S GOING TO HAVE THEIR EAR CLOUTTED!" Eliza yowled furiously.

"Let's go!" Storm cried, racing to the alley exit.

His siblings followed behind.

* * *

The three cats were standing at the entrance of another alley.

"Is this the one Mom was talking about?" Edith asked.

"Yep." Storm replied.

They stood there for a moment, not saying anything.

"Well, are we going or what?" Storm said.

Before his siblings could answer, Storm padded into the seemingly suspicious alley.

Edith and Shade had no choice but to follow him.

* * *

The alley was dark and quiet. Another alley cut into it.

"It's too quiet," Shade hissed to Storm under his breath.

Edith shushed them.

"Did you hear that? It sounded like a growl," she whispered so faintly that it was nearly impossible to hear her.

"You're probably just hearing things again," Storm replied.

Edith sniffed the air. Her eyes widened in fear and her fur bristled. She quickly backed away from her brothers.

"Edith, what are you doing?!" Shade asked.

"It's an ambush…they're going to ambush us," Edith mewled in fear.

As if on cue, a huge figure jumped from its hiding place at the corner of the intersecting alleyways.

The three siblings leaped at the giant cat.

They fought viciously.

The cat flung Edith off its back. She landed with a thud on the concrete ground.

The cat shook off Storm and Shade.

"Humph. You did ok. Your swipes need more work though," the huge cat said in a deep, gruff voice.

Edith cried, "_You're _our mentor?! What the heck!"

She stood up and continued, "My forehead has a big gash in it! I could've _died_! Leave it to a tom to-"

The large tom cornered her and growled, "Don't talk to me like that. I am your mentor, and I deserve more respect than you're giving me right now. Is that heard?"

Edith nodded her head.

"Good." He backed away. "Now you will all try attacking me again. And this time, try to do better."

"Yes…uh…what's your name?" Storm asked.

"Smoke."

"Yes Smoke," the three young cats said.

With that, they lunged at him.

* * *

Eliza was crouching over a hot dog she had just found.

She slowly chewed it, savoring its rich, meaty flavor.

She saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned her gaze to the alley entrance. Standing there was a brown tabby tom and a calico.

"Give us the hot dog," the tabby hissed.

"What?! Why should I?! Go find your own food," Eliza snarled, standing over the hot dog to guard it.

The calico unsheathed her claws. "Because one of our cats saw you get it from Glass Shard territory. So therefore, it belongs to us. Give it here, _now._"

Eliza gritted her teeth. She hissed slowly, "Go. Find. Your. Own. Food."

The brown tabby lunged at her. Eliza screeched a war cry and leapt for him too. She grabbed a hold of him, and twisted her weight so that he fell down.

She pinned him to the ground. She raked her claws over his eye, and clouted his ear.

The brown tabby howled in pain, blood welling out of his new wound. He scratched Eliza's cheek and punched her in the eye.

"I've got the hot dog! Let's go," the calico yowled.

The brown tabby kicked Eliza off. As the two cats darted off, the brown tabby turned to look at Eliza, rage and hatred glowing in his eye. "This won't be the last time you see us, flea-bag!"

Eliza hissed. She arched her back and her fur bristled. "LEAVE!"

The two cats sped off, leaving the gray tabby she-cat with blood dripping out of her new wound, a swollen black eye, and with no hot dog.

* * *

Storm, Edith, and Shade were heading back to their alley, where their mom was waiting for them.

As they turned the corner and entered the alley, Storm purred, "Hey Mum! We're back from our training-"

He gasped in horror.

"Oh…no…who-who did this to you?" Edith asked quietly.

"Oh, I hope you're all right Mum! Oh..." Storm cried.

"I'm fine guys. I just got into a little scrap. Lost some food, but…still…"

Eliza told her kits what happened.

"No. No. Mum, we just can't let the Glass Shards do this to you and get away with it," Storm growled.

"Storm, I'm fine, really-"

"WE CAN'T LET THEM WALK ON US LIKE THIS MUM! WE CAN'T," Storm screamed. His voice quieted down. "We have to do something."

"Dear, really, it's not necessary."

"Well…it is to me," Storm hissed coldly.

He stormed into the cardboard box, with his siblings and his mom staring after him.

"Sheesh. Such a temper…" Shade muttered.

"I get hurt and he acts like it's the end of the world…" his mother murmured.

"_But he may be on to something… maybe we _do _need to do something about the Glass Shards…" _Eliza thought.

* * *

**Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. (I hope the pace wasn't too fast…)**

**Please read and review! **


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